Round 10 is finishing up, and there’s a bit of time to go before we’ll know who made Day 2 and who didn’t. With that being the case, it seems like a great chance to look at more of the tech picks that defined the Day 1 field, and shaped the Day 2 roster.
Elemental Hero Stratos:
You may not think of Elemental Hero Stratos as a tech card, but he’s seeing play this weekend in decks that don’t normally use him — namely, Gladiator Beasts. Previously, Gladiator Beast players eschewed Stratos for the simple issue of speed. Against Dark Armed Dragon and Lightsworn, you wanted to go off with Gyzarus as quickly as possible to de-stabilize the opponent before he or she could develop infrastructure, building toward Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon. This is still true in those matchups, but one thing’s changed: a Gladiator Beast player can now rely on facing other Gladiator duelists multiple times in virtually any premier tournament he or she enters.
The strategy’s reversed in that matchup: while an inexperienced Gladiator Beast duelist may leave him or herself open to Gyzarus’ destruction effect, most won’t, so that opening isn’t nearly so lucrative in terms of game position. Instead, it makes more sense to hold your Gyzarus-enabling combos until your opponent either develops a larger field, plays Heraklinos, or tags out a Gyzarus of his or her own into two other monsters.
That logic contributes to a situation in which speed is less important: since opposing Gladiator Beasts can’t touch your hand with anything but Trap Dustshoot, there’s just no reason to rush. There are, however, plenty of reasons to be the last one laughing with a Gyzarus play. That mitigates the one-turn delay Stratos presents, and in fact, Stratos himself can attack in order to pressure an opponent into making a bigger play. Even just trading him off with Gladiator Beast Laquari is a good play, and that’s led competitors like Ryan Spicer and many more to run Stratos in Gladiator Beasts today.
The Shallow Grave:
Speaking of Gladiator Beast innovations, I absolutely love Mike Green’s single copy of The Shallow Grave. It brings some great plays to the Gladiators’ arsenal and it makes cards that the deck was already running even better. Let’s look at some of the plays it introduces to the deck.
First up, if you summon Elemental Hero Prisma and use its effect to send Bestiari to the graveyard, you can play The Shallow Grave immediately to bring it to the field (provided your opponent has at least one monster in the graveyard). That brings Gyzarus online as a potential play, much the same way that Test Tiger achieves the same goal with Prisma. The difference? Well, a deck running three Test Tiger and Shallow Grave has four Prisma-into-Gyzarus combos instead of three. That alone is a huge difference, because the deck’s deadliest combo becomes 33% easier to pull off.
Also of note, Shallow Grave’s effect isn’t optional, so it forces your opponent to play a monster in defense position. Slam any Gladiator Beast into the monster your opponent is forced to summon, and it’s easy to tag out to Gladiator Beast Murmillo and take out any monster on the field. In the mean time you can make safe special summons like Gladiator Beast Hoplomus that serve to securely develop your game position.
The Shallow Grave even combos with another piece of newly-popularized Gladiator Beast tech, Mind Control. Mind Control serves two purposes here today. The first, is to swipe opposing Gladiator Beasts to contribute to a contact Fusion. The other is to get a defending monster out of the way so that you can make direct attacks. But the card’s normally useless if your opponent doesn’t control a monster, rendering it a dead draw. No worries — force your opponent to have a monster with The Shallow Grave, then take it with Mind Control. At the very least you’ll get to special summon a monster without depriving yourself of direct attacks. At the very best, you’ll be able to grab another Gladiator Beast to contact Fuse or tag out with Test Tiger.
It’s no real secret: a lot of Gladiator Beast matches are being decided here today by who can summon Gyzarus more. The Shallow Grave gives increased access to both Gyzarus and Gladiator Beast Heraklinos, while providing more options, better game position, and combos with cards that average Gladiator duelists are already running. If you play Gladiators, this is definitely tech worth trying. After seeing the card in action, Mike Green has stated that he’s ready to main deck two from here on out.
Prohibition:
Jerome is discussing the rulings surrounding Prohibition in another article that’ll be posted later this weekend, so I’ll let him handle some of the details. But suffice to say, Prohibition was the card people were scrambling to find this morning. It’s been ruled that if Prohibition is active after Bestiari is declared for its effect, that Prisma cannot copy Bestiari’s name (though it can still send Bestiari to the graveyard). So not only will a Gladiator Beast duelist not be allowed to summon Bestiari, but it won’t have any way to summon Gyzarus whatsoever. That’s deadly, because not only does it shut down Gyzarus, but Prohibition protects itself as well. Few Gladiator Beast duelists are running Mystical Space Typhoon today, meaning that without Gyzarus and Bestiari, the only out to Prohibition is Heavy Storm. Not good odds.
The card can be used against big threats like Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon too, and it’s a nice way to get around Solemn Judgment, but really, everyone who’s playing it is calling Bestiari. Judgment Dragon isn’t hitting the table at all today anyway, and Solemn Judgment is only a call you make on your second copy of Prohibition. When Gladiator Beasts lose their Bestiari plays, you usually don’t even have time to draw into a second Prohibition. They lose before that happens.
If Prohibition can make it to Day 2, it’s definitely going to become a factor at the Canadian National Championships, SJC Philadelphia, and SJC Honolulu. I would advise you to get yours now — they’re already going for five to ten bucks here at the event, and cheap copies at online auction sites aren’t going to last.
Prime Material Dragon:
Monster destruction saw a big resurgence in two forms. The first was Bottomless Trap Hole, a card that saw play in everything here today. The second was general card-for-card trades played in rogue decks like Gadgets. The metagame today just wasn’t monster friendly, but go figure, the ability to keep monsters on the field tends to lead to wins so players were willing to do whatever they could to retain field presence.
Prime Material Dragon gave many decks a consistent out to all of those threats, as well as well-recognized sources of removal like Gladiator Beast Murmillo, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, and Dark Armed Dragon. Prime Material is so popular not just because it destroys those key monsters, but because it’s more than just a one-shot answer like My Body As A Shield. It’s actually a protection engine in and of itself, and once it’s on the field it’s really difficult to get rid of. You could swing over it with Dark Armed Dragon, but Gyzarus is going to have to trade with it, and both of those scenarios are dependant on the Prime Material player not having any sort of protection for the Dragon. The fact that Prime Material Dragon funnels burn damage into life points is a nice bonus too, but the reason it’s seeing play is the protective ability.
Gadgets were massive today, and that just helped to further Prime Material Dragon’s popularity. It was a huge main deck favorite in Monarch variants, and even if it doesn’t make Day 2 it’s something that should be considered for any Monarch build. There aren’t really any matchups where it’s a bad card. It stops Judgment Dragon in Lightsworn, Dark Armed Dragon in Dark decks, and tons of stuff in Gladiator Beasts, falling flat only against Monarchs themselves.
Prime Material Dragon could wind up seeing play in both main and side decks over the coming weeks, so again, it’s a great card to pick up now before the rest of the dueling world figures it out. It’s incredibly versatile, has two distinctly good effects that could each warrant tournament play on their own, and it’s something I think every player should have in their play binder.
That’s it for today! We’re still waiting on the final matches of Round 10, but any minute now we’ll know who made Day 2. Stay with us, because we’re going to have the Top 16 decklists and more before the night is done.